History Highlight
The history of the Butler County Courthouse includes an underground spring, cast iron steps and a haunting.
Those subjects will be among the topics covered during a television documentary airing in September.
Pennsylvania Cable Network, PCN, on Wednesday began filming at the courthouse. The footage will air as part of a six-part series highlighting the architecture, anecdotes and history of six county courthouses.
Retired Judge Martin O'Brien served as narrator for most of the Butler County episode.
“I'm a history buff,” O'Brien said. “I think that's why it fell to me.”
During the taping, O'Brien spoke about the origins of the courthouse, which was built in 1885 on Main Street.
At the time of construction, people protested the $117,000 cost, calling it expensive and extravagant.
The building— the county's fourth courthouse —- was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It is considered High Victorian Gothic in style with Romanesque accents, according to the Living Places.com Internet site.
The outside walls are 22 inches thick and made of honey-brown sandstone, lined with brick, according to the Internet site.
In the building, O'Brien pointed out the cast-iron steps leading to a hallway from the sheriff's and clerk of courts' offices.
O'Brien also spoke about the courthouse being built over an underground spring.
Commissioner James Kennedy explained the county used the spring to cool the building.
“They didn't have air conditioning,” he said. “A facility that big gets hot.”
A committee formed by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania selected the six counties based on various criteria, including architecture and hauntings.
Judy Snyder, Kennedy's administrative assistant, submitted Butler's application.“I just thought it would be great opportunity,” she said.As part of CCAP's 125th anniversary, the organization and PCN decided to create the documentary series.Along with Butler's courthouse, those in Allegheny, Bradford, Chester, Dauphin and Mercer counties will be featured.PCN also filmed county President Judge Thomas Doerr, who spoke about the Lumley ghost haunting the courthouse.In January 1967, Ada Darline Lumley was killed with a knife, stabbed 13 timesIn July 1967, Donald Leroy Brown was tried for the murder.The prosecuting attorney was John Brydon, who later became a county judge.Doerr, whose father J. Paul Doerr was the county controller at the time, witnessed the trial in courtroom 1.Nearing the end of Brydon's closing argument, he picked up the murder weapon to re-enact the stabbing.“John Brydon was very dramatic,” Doerr said during filming.At the moment Brydon thrust the blade for the 13th time, lightning struck the courthouse.The lights went out. While it was pitch black, a bolt of lightning arched across the two chandeliers that still hang in the courtroom.The trial eventually resumed. Brown was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.Decades later, Brown implicated his brother, Samuel, in the crime. Following an investigation, Samuel Brown was tried in March 1998.Now a judge, Doerr presided over Samuel Brown's trial.The exhibits, which included Lumley's clothing, were locked inside courtroom 5 in the government center each night.The county cleaning crew told Doerr they refused to enter the courtroom because they heard footsteps and other eerie sounds.As Lumley's clothes were stored there, the haunting was attributed to her.Samuel Brown's sentencing occurred April 28, 1998, in courtroom 5, which is in the government center adjacent to the courthouse.When Doerr asked Brown if he had anything to say, Brown denied culpability in the murder.“As God is my witness, I did not kill Ada Darline Lumley,” Brown told the judge.At that moment, the lights went out in courtroom 5.Court and sheriff's staff ruled out the possibility of anyone flipping a switch.“No one knows why the lights went out,” Doerr said during filming.Doerr said the people experiencing all the events from both trials concluded Lumley's ghost was haunting the Brown brothers.Doerr is pleased Butler was chosen to be highlighted in the documentary series.“There's a lot of rich history,” he said. “It's nice to see (Butler) getting attention from the state It's a wonderful old courthouse.”
